Inclusive Education Advisory Committee Meeting - June 8, 2009

							                           Inclusive Education
                            Advisory Committee
                                  Meeting
                               June 8, 2009
                                  Minutes
                      Meeting Chaired by Laurie Smith, SSS Principal
                           Minutes taken by Ken Arkell, District
                                        Facilitator



1. SSS Update
     a. Mock audits – help us prepare for an audit
     b. BCeSIS - This is the new province wide software program for
        tracking student progress. The part we are training support
        teachers in is the new Individual Education Plan (IEP)
        writer. There will be one more year of training for this
        first stage (13 elementary schools left to train). Use for
        creating IEPs will be optional for next year and then it
        will be mandatory in 2010-2011 school year.
     c. SEA Pro-d - Due to a grant there has been training for SEAs
        in Autism and Behaviour hopefully this training will
        continue
     d. Pro-d training for support teachers and classroom teachers
        has been provided this year by Deirdre Way, Terry Lockett,
        and Ken Arkell - they will be teaching workshops this summer
     e. Meaningful Consultation with Parents document that Laurie
        Smith has co-created – she is now working on a presentation
        to groups of administrators, parents and teachers.
     f. Learning Disabilities (Learning Differences) Working Group
        chaired by Ken Arkell - this group has met throughout this
        year and will continue to meet in September. The committee
        has already provided recommendations including:
          i. Listening to what students with learning disabilities
             have to say –via student interviews with students with
             learning disabilities in our secondary schools
         ii. Creating a cyber tool box of resources and links – this
             will go on SSS website
       iii. Technology for students – there will be a pilot laptop
             project for students with learning disabilities
            beginning in September, there will also be easier
            access to assistive software technology such as
            Kurzweil, Co-writer, inspiration, speech to text, and
            text to speech.
        iv. Letters have been created addressed to the College of
            Teachers advocating Teacher training programs require
            students to take courses in special education.
     g. Paperwork Committee chaired by Laurie Smith
          i. Simplified the Personal Development forms for students
             with very high needs
         ii. Simplifying the referral forms to SSS so that support
             teachers spend less time on paperwork and more time
             with students
     h. Positive Behaviour Support Training – Training (by Risha
        Golby and Deirdre Way)has been started and will continue in
        providing training to teachers in functional behaviour
        assessment, and writing behaviour plans.
     i. Critical Incident Response Training has been planned to
        begin in September for counselors and vice principals
     j. Ministry Committee formed with Laurie Smith to develop a
        tool for districts to review special education services
        within a school district
     k. School websites: Ken Arkell helped any schools who wanted
        to update their websites individual consultation on how to
        use the WordPress program to create a new school website.
        These websites would be a great place to advertise the
        Inclusive Education Advisory Committee meetings
     l. Last week there 30 graduates of a Diversity graduate diploma
        program from SFU for working Teachers 28 of those came from
        this district

     m. SET-BC ARC program for use of alternate format books,
        textbooks, and other digital resources
     n. UDL (Universal Design for Learning) pilot project
        application led by Risha Golby was successful and will begin
        with funding for technology at Mount Crescent Elementary
     o. Technology Inclusion Project (TIP) Successful application
        made by Deirdre Way. The project will be centered on Thomas
        Haney Secondary and begin next September. This project will
        provide assistive technology tools to students with severe
        and multiple disabilities.

2. SSS Website Student Support Services Website – it is now up and
   running – Ken Arkell would like your feedback on this website
   with ideas for improving it. Website address:
   http://schools.sd42.ca/sss/
   ACTION: All parents are asked to spend time on the website and
send your comments for improving the site to Ken Arkell
karkell@sd42.ca

3. Guests – Senior Team & Guests
YES – this will happen most likely after Christmas (include New
Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent, Senior Team, MRTA Pres.
CUPE Pres. Chair and Vice Chair of School Board)
  ACTION:    Laurie Smith will make these invitations
4. Changes in September
     a. Sustainable – changes are affecting students who have SEA
        services, District Itinerants, support teachers who are
        changed how can we have this not delay or affect our
        services to our children?
     b. Transitions – there is a Transition Planning Document on the
        links and resources page for Parents (look under the parent
        section on the right hand side of the SSS Website)
     c. Still may be a need for a paper pamphlet – on what to do if
        your child is struggling.
5. Information for Parents
     a. Coding – How do we decrease the amount of time it takes to
        get a code for a student. Laurie Meston: Possible early
        intervention strategy coming out next year.
   ACTION: Laurie Meston to present this plan at a future Inclusive
Ed. meeting
     b. Impact of time lost by not having a code and/or changes in
        staff
6. Advertising these meetings

   ACTION: We need to advertise these meetings in school
newsletters, doctor’s offices, newspaper, etc.
7. Adaptations & Modifications Provincial Committee –
   ACTION:   This item is tabled due to time restraints until next
year




      NEXT MEETING OF THE INCLUSIVE
      EDUCATION ADVISORY MEETING WILL BE:

   DATE:       SEPTEMBER 21, 2009
   TIME:       7pm – 9pm
   Place:      Thomas Haney Secondary School
               – Room # will be posted on the
               white board in the entrance
               foyer